OII Australia recently joined with the National LGBTI Health Alliance, A Gender Agenda, Transformative and Transgender Victoria to agree a joint submission to the federal Attorney General’s Department on non-binary recognition in the federal sex and gender recognition guidelines.

The submission relates to the definition of “X” in those guidelines and it demonstrates consensus that the definition of “X” should be “non-binary” and not “Indeterminate/intersex/unspecified”.

The word “non-binary” simplifies the third classification, while being respectful both to people with non-binary gender identities, and to intersex people who are men or women. We commend this approach to institutions and organisations.

The submission does not discuss additional classifications such as M+F, nor a separate marker to opt out of classification, and nor does it enable self-declaration of gender. These issues remain important concerns but they were not subjects of this submission to the federal Attorney General’s Department.